Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory
Viking Age Europe was a well-connected world. Wherever we look in the archaeological record from this period we find evidence of communication and exchange across vast distances, connecting Europe with North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Taking this evidence into consideration, I ask if the s...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
eScholarship, University of California
2010
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d http://n2t.net/ark:/20775/bb2834042x |
id |
ftcdlib:qt57x8877d |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcdlib:qt57x8877d 2023-05-15T16:46:50+02:00 Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory Carter, Tara Dawn 1 PDF (1 online resource xxii, 513 p.) 2010-01-01 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d http://n2t.net/ark:/20775/bb2834042x unknown eScholarship, University of California http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d qt57x8877d http://n2t.net/ark:/20775/bb2834042x public Carter, Tara Dawn. (2010). Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory. UC San Diego: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d UCSD Dissertations Academic Anthropology. (Discipline) Iceland Political anthropology dissertation 2010 ftcdlib 2016-04-02T18:47:15Z Viking Age Europe was a well-connected world. Wherever we look in the archaeological record from this period we find evidence of communication and exchange across vast distances, connecting Europe with North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Taking this evidence into consideration, I ask if the same sort of connectedness applied to medieval Iceland and, if so, what role might it have played in its development of secondary state institutions. Previous models have vacillated between those that emphasize indigenous, autonomous state development and those that emphasize the purely secondary, derivative nature of the Icelandic state and its relationship to existing complex societies. I argue that these perceptions are the result of methodological and analytical limitations to research on the process of secondary state formation in general, and in particular to the history of research on the development of political and economic complexity in the North Atlantic. My primary goal in this dissertation is to reconsider the concept of secondary state formation in light of the new evidence from my archaeological study on the economic organization of Skagafjörour, northern Iceland. For my research I have designed the Skagafjörour Landscape Project (SLP), a regional archaeological survey that covers an area a little more 5,500 km² and spans nearly a thousand years. The data from the SLP suggests that it is misleading to examine the process of state formation at the hands of either local or external factors, but should instead be viewed along several different structural, spatial, and temporal scales of analysis. This kind social dynamism is what I term here a "synergistic secondary state," where state level institutions are the result of cultural practices that are situated at the intersection of independent but highly connected endogenous and exogenous processes. Unlike existing approaches to the study of secondary state formation, the synergistic secondary state model makes use of a social network methodology, capable of examining the relationship between variables rather than generating a series of trait lists. While this model has been developed to understand social developments in medieval Iceland, this approach has applications that can be used for investigations of other known case studies of state formation Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Iceland North Atlantic University of California: eScholarship |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
UCSD Dissertations Academic Anthropology. (Discipline) Iceland Political anthropology |
spellingShingle |
UCSD Dissertations Academic Anthropology. (Discipline) Iceland Political anthropology Carter, Tara Dawn Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
topic_facet |
UCSD Dissertations Academic Anthropology. (Discipline) Iceland Political anthropology |
description |
Viking Age Europe was a well-connected world. Wherever we look in the archaeological record from this period we find evidence of communication and exchange across vast distances, connecting Europe with North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Taking this evidence into consideration, I ask if the same sort of connectedness applied to medieval Iceland and, if so, what role might it have played in its development of secondary state institutions. Previous models have vacillated between those that emphasize indigenous, autonomous state development and those that emphasize the purely secondary, derivative nature of the Icelandic state and its relationship to existing complex societies. I argue that these perceptions are the result of methodological and analytical limitations to research on the process of secondary state formation in general, and in particular to the history of research on the development of political and economic complexity in the North Atlantic. My primary goal in this dissertation is to reconsider the concept of secondary state formation in light of the new evidence from my archaeological study on the economic organization of Skagafjörour, northern Iceland. For my research I have designed the Skagafjörour Landscape Project (SLP), a regional archaeological survey that covers an area a little more 5,500 km² and spans nearly a thousand years. The data from the SLP suggests that it is misleading to examine the process of state formation at the hands of either local or external factors, but should instead be viewed along several different structural, spatial, and temporal scales of analysis. This kind social dynamism is what I term here a "synergistic secondary state," where state level institutions are the result of cultural practices that are situated at the intersection of independent but highly connected endogenous and exogenous processes. Unlike existing approaches to the study of secondary state formation, the synergistic secondary state model makes use of a social network methodology, capable of examining the relationship between variables rather than generating a series of trait lists. While this model has been developed to understand social developments in medieval Iceland, this approach has applications that can be used for investigations of other known case studies of state formation |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Carter, Tara Dawn |
author_facet |
Carter, Tara Dawn |
author_sort |
Carter, Tara Dawn |
title |
Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
title_short |
Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
title_full |
Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
title_fullStr |
Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory |
title_sort |
rethinking secondary state formation in medieval iceland : trade and social connectivity in the norse economic territory |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d http://n2t.net/ark:/20775/bb2834042x |
op_coverage |
1 PDF (1 online resource xxii, 513 p.) |
genre |
Iceland North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Iceland North Atlantic |
op_source |
Carter, Tara Dawn. (2010). Rethinking secondary state formation in medieval Iceland : trade and social connectivity in the Norse economic territory. UC San Diego: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d |
op_relation |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/57x8877d qt57x8877d http://n2t.net/ark:/20775/bb2834042x |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766036926684463104 |